Dedication of the Temple, Monday, May 14, 2012

Today's reading is I Kings 8 and II Chronicles 5-8.  After the Temple is completed, the Ark is brought by consecrated Levite priests and placed under the cherabim in the Most Holy Place.  During the dedication, music and singing accompanied the sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats.  Again, the enormity of this undertaking needs to be pondered.  How do you feed and water and transport, let alone sacrifice, that many animals?  The sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple.  I don't even pretend to know what it would be like to witness that.  But, it is my hope that the "glory of the Lord" is a glimpse of what Heaven will be like.